Arizona Native Langlois is One Reason Quinnipiac Hockey Is So Hot

HAMDEN — – Quinnipiac senior forward Jeremy Langlois feels fortunate to have grown up in a climate that allowed him to play hockey year-round.

"Arizona is so warm," he said, "that we could play in the winter."

Sounds backward, right? The average high temperature in his hometown of Tempe exceeds 100 degrees four months of the year. It cools down a bit in the winter — to the high 60s and low 70s.

No frozen ponds, no seeing your breath cut through the morning air. Still, this was perfect weather for hockey … roller hockey. Though on pavement instead of ice, Langlois started the way many hockey players do, by gathering the neighborhood kids after school and on weekends.

Langlois took the ice for the first time at age 7 and started playing competitive ice hockey a few years later. Now he's the leading scorer for the top-ranked hockey team in the nation, having posted 28 points (12 goals and 16 assists) for the Bobcats, who host ninth-seeded Cornell Friday in Game 1 of a three-game ECAC quarterfinal series at High Point Solutions Arena.

Quinnipiac (24-5-5) has made program history this season and enters the postseason as a virtual lock for a high seed in the NCAA Tournament no matter what happens in the ECAC playoffs. A victory over Cornell would send the Bobcats to Atlantic City for the conference semifinals and championship game March 22-23.

The Bobcats' previous high ranking was No. 4 in 2008-09, when Langlois was a freshman. The program's single-season record for victories is 27, in 1999-00. In 2000-01, Quinnipiac won the MAAC championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the only time, losing to Cornell in the first round.

"We accomplished all we wanted to in the regular season and now we just have to ramp it back up," Langlois said. "To go on a run like this, be ranked No. 1 heading into the playoffs, it's huge. It's good for the school. We're getting a lot of publicity. Our fan base is growing, which is great to see. This year, the seniors and the coaching staff kind of knew it was our year, knew this was a great year to make the push."

Langlois, 22, is one of 11 Quinnipiac seniors — and the only player from Arizona. There are 13 from Canada, four from Minnesota, three from Massachusetts, one from Illinois, one from Missouri, one from Holland and one from Connecticut.

Having players from warm-weather states isn't the norm, but it's not completely far-fetched, either, especially since NHL expansion and relocation took teams to places such as Phoenix, San Jose, and Florida. Three Quinnipiac players are from California.

"You're not going to get a million out of [Arizona], but there are good players everywhere," coach Rand Pecknold said. "I think Hawaii might be the only state that is not [developing prospects]. That NHL team comes in, wants to develop a fan base, they do stuff in community, start youth programs, start leagues, roller hockey leagues, all this stuff. And these kids grow up and they're watching these [NHL] stars and it's, 'I want to play hockey.'"

That's what happened with Langlois, inspired by the Coyotes' relocation in 1996. He is one of just a handful of Arizona players in Division I, including UConn goalie Matt Grogan, who is from Gilbert.

Langlois, who was fourth on the team last season with 26 points and third in 2010-11 with 23, is among Quinnipiac's best open-ice players, which would make sense.

"A lot of roller hockey players are good at puck protection," Langlois said. "You can't hit in roller hockey, so if you can protect the puck and stick-handle — that's why a lot of guys who played roller hockey usually have good stick-handling skills. There's no offsides in roller hockey. It's more wide-open, a lot of speed and skating. There's no checking. So a lot of it is positioning and being in the right position to stop people because you can't use your body."

Quinnipiac assistant Bill Riga first took notice of Langlois when Langlois was playing Junior B hockey. Langlois eventually joined the New Jersey Hitmen, a Junior A team, when he was 17. In 2008-09, Langlois led the Eastern Junior Hockey League in scoring and was named the league's MVP and offensive player of the year. Soon, there were many Division I scholarship offers. Undrafted, he'll be a free agent after he graduates and hopes to sign with an NHL team.

"Langer was a good player who was a raw player," Pecknold said. "My thought is that kids who played roller hockey are very skilled. Roller hockey is 4-on-4 and they never dump it in. Ice hockey, unfortunately, at 7, 8 years old, their coaches are telling them to dump it in, so they're not developing that skill. In roller hockey, it's all puck possession. So your skill level develops at a better rate."